Surface for pictorial display and the like



July 3, 1923. 1,460,553

C. E. A. MERROW SURFACE FOR PJC'IUHIAL DISPLAY AND THE LIKE Filed Feb. 16 1921 FIG-I F I? I flwen 7,712 t'lrur/ealIA/Ierraw Patented July 3, 1923.

UNIT'D STATS CHARLES E. A. MERROW, OI BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. I

SURFACE -IFOIR, PICTORIAL DISPLAY AND THE LIKE.

, Application filed February 16, 1921. Serial No. 445,576.

I 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. A. MER- ROW, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, county of Suffolk Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented oertain new and useful Improvements in Surfaces for Pictorial Display and the like, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to the creation and preservation of surfaces and particularly to the production of extended surfaces adapted for display. My invention is both adapted and adaptable to a considerable variety of uses as will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

For the purposes of disclosure and of illustrating the uses and advantages of my invention, I have selected an" embodiment which in itself is of very great practical importance and for which there is an immediate and very pressing demand.

I shall therefore proceed at once to a disclosure of my invention as applied to panels for pictures, decorations and other artistic productions. Before entering into a detailed discussion of this application of my invention, it may be proper to note the difliculties and defects of materials and instructions heretofore used.

The use of canvas to provide surface for paintings has come down to us from earlier ages and for many reasons has been supposed to aflord the most satisfactory surface upon which such medium as oil paint may be applied.

The great difiiculty with canvas has been its short life for any serious works of art of sufficient merit to justify their trans mission from generation to generation and has been found to be woefully lacking in permanency. Its vegetable fibre is subject to all natural causes of decay and in addition to this such a medium as oil paint'ha s a very serious and destructive effect. As is well known, linseed oil or any other oxidizing oil has so great activity when in the presence of any vegetable fibre as to make it a common menace. While of course an oil painting is not liable to any such extreme rate of action as to cause actual burning, there is nevertheless a constant action on the fibres which ultimately destroys their strength and in many cases after a compara tively short period of years the fabric begins to disintegrate and has to be lined or reinforced or patched.

For this reason many artists have worked on solid or non-textile panels. As long as such surfaces are small there is not so great danger of cracking or warping, but as soon as the surface required becomes of any considerable extent, the solid panel is immediately a menace to itself and the work of art which it bears. This of course is very much exaggerated in the case of large anels for-large paintings or decorations. any expedients have been tried and much effort has been made to render works of art more durable and to prevent the rapid deterioration which has seemed to be inevitable in these objects of art.

It has been proposed to build panels, and in fact composite panels have been built up in elaborate efforts to anticipate the effects of temperature and climate. No great success has been accomplished and the expense has been almost prohibitive.

My invention involves a very simple principle. I provide a surface of such durable material as wood which for many reasons seems to be best adapted to receive and retain the mediums of serious art with a surface inlay or bonding by which there is formed a large number of surface units each one of which is in one sense isolated and in another sense intimately bonded. My manner of effecting this result can best be understood and appreciated by reference to the accompanying drawings in which I have shown a simple embodiment of my invention. Throughout the specificatlon and drawing like reference characters are employed to indicate corresponding parts, and in the drawings:

Fig. I is a face view of a surface in accordance wit-h my invention, the same being shown with portions cutaway or scraped away to indicate successive layers.

Fig. II is a sectional view similarly treated.

Fig. III is an enlarged fragmentary section of a modification.

Fig. IV an enlarged fragment of the inlay.

prefer to have the immediate surface one of perfectly natural wood and preferably in natural state except for thorough seasoning and the necessary smoothing or fitting by which it is mechanically prepared.

1 have indicated at 2 in Fig. I such a surface and have shown at 3 an inlay of metallic mesh. This a pears more clearly in the section of Fig. II in which it will be seen that this mesh is really lodged or embodied in the surface of the wood. I accomplish this by pressure as for example by rolling the mesh directly into the surface of the wood by weighted rollers. The mesh 3 may be conveniently formed as a woven wire screen, expanded metal or the like. If wire mesh is used I preferably roll the same between electric rolls to flatten and weld the intersections of the wire strands. The reticulations or the interstices defined by the intersecting wires are of such suitable size or area as is adapted to reasonably subdivide the surface into a sufficient number of surface units so that there shall. not be suflicient surface material in any one unit to generate a crack of sufiicient depth to travel past the surrounding inlay which isolates it as a surface but which bonds it as an integral part of the whole.

The inlay 3 is preferably made of metal or metallic composition of low co-efiicient of expansion such as a bronze composition. As the wires forming the inlay are continuous entirely across the panel there can be no longitudinal displacement or warping of the surface or body of the panel itself, due to changes in temperature. Furthermore, the bonding of the intersections of the meshes gives the inlay as a whole a very high conductivity so that any thermal change is distributed over the entire surface with the greatest uniformity. I further preferably roughen as indicated at 3 the surfaces of the wires or other members that go to make up the inlay. This not only assists in the permanency of the lodgement of the inlay in the surface, but affords a greatly increased attachment for any coatings or dressings or application of color in the painting of a picture thereon.

As indicated at 4, I preferably coat the combined surfaces 2 and 3 with a layer of lead or other filling adapted to properly close the surface pores of the wood and seal any crevices or depressions formed by the sinking of the inlay. The coating 4 may therefore be considered to be more of a treatment. of the surface 2 and 3 and less of an actual layer than would appear in the drawings, which as stated above from their very nature are somewhat exaggerated. The treatment 4 does not usually even conceal the exposed portions of the inlay and in fact it is not necessary that it should do so. Many artists prefer the regular lines pf the inlay as guides in sketching in the subject. Even if the inlay is somewhat apparent it gives merely the effect of body or texture.

Over the surface 4 may be applied any further surface treatment as at 5. This may be additional lead or zinc and on this the painting may be developed by the artist in whatever manner of treatment the subject or style requires.

I have indicated at Fig. III a portion of a panel in which the inlay is applied to both sides. This might be desirable in case of very large panels or in the case of decorated panels exposed on both sides as in the case of screens or doors or partitions.

Such inlay on both sides of a panel or other object not only protects both surfaces from cracking or splitting, but is an additional guarantee against warping. Inlay on one side is effective against any ordinary warping tendency but when both opposite extended surfaces are so treated warping is opposed in all directions. Details of roughening and of the preparation of the wire or sheet or mesh as well as the degree of embedding may be varied to conform to desired results. Panels may be reinforced or finished or bound at the edges and such other and supplemental finish added as may be required.

A great variety of modifications are not only possible but wholly probable and my invention is capable of adaptation and embodiment to great varieties of structures whether they be structures prepared especially for works of art like panels, or whether they be natural surfaces like walls, columns, or standing finish in buildings. I shall not go into such detail in my present application as I prefer to submit my invention in its comparative simplicity and as in reality a new surface.

While I have expressed preference for a natural wood which I believe for many considerations to be the best actual medium, my invention can be practiced with some ad vantage in the case of composite panels, veneered structures and like bodies for which there might' be some preference due to circumstances or to individual tastes. All such uses or structures are therefore to be considered as within my invention if within the limits of the appended claims.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. As a new article of manufacture, a display surface, and an inlay embedded therein subdividing said display surface into a plurality of units isolated as to each other but intimately bonded as a whole throughout the entire extent of the display surface whereby to prevent distortion of said display surface.

2. An object of the class described having an extended display surface of fibrous material and a metallic inlay embedded therein to prevent distortion of said display surface and consisting of intersecting members extending continuously across said surface and dividing it into a plurality of isolated surface units bonded together in the WhOle.

3. An' object of the class described comprising a wooden panel having an extended display surface and a reticulated metallic inlay lodged in said surface so as to subdividingly receive into its interstices relatively small unitary areas of the surface of the wood While bonding the surface as a whole to prevent distortion thereof.

4. An object of the class described hav- -ing an extended display surface of fibrous material and having in such surface an inlay consisting of a reticulated body having intersecting members extending continuously across said surface to prevent distortion thereof.

5. An object of the class described having an extended display surface of fibrous material and having in such surface an inlay consisting of a reticulated body having intersecting members extending continuously across said surface, and a coating embodied in said inlaid surface in unifying relation to the elements thereof.

6. An object of the class described having an extended display surface and having in such surface an inlay consisting of a reticulated body havmg intersecting members extending continuously across said surface,

said members being roughened, and a coating embodied in said inlaid surface in unifying relation to the elements thereof.

7. As a new article of manufacture, a dis play surface of fibrous material, and an inlay embedded therein subdividing said dis play surface into a plurality of units isolated as to each other but intimately bonded as a whole throughout the entire extent of the display surface whereby to prevent dis tortion of said display surface.

8. As a new article of manufacture, a display surface, an inlay embedded therein subdividing said display surface intoa plurality of units isolated as to each other, but intimately bonded as a whole throughout the entire extent of the display surface whereby to prevent distortion of said display surface, and a coating embodied in said inlaid surface in unifying relation to the elements thereof.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

CHARLES E. A. MERROW.

Witnesses:

MARION F. WEISS. GEO. B, RAWLINGS. 

